Multiple views of the Gradebook (list vs grid)

KB Article: Grid versus List views

Not available in Classic

The Item List is the new view of the gradebook. Instructors can quickly see how many students have submitted an assessment, how many they need to grade, and how many grades need to be posted. Instructors can also see when they have completed grading an item.

Instructors can toggle to switch from Item to Student Grid view.  The student grid view is like a traditional spreadsheet view of the Gradebook.

Comment Library

KB Article:  Comment Library

Not available in Classic

Instructors can save a library of reusable comments and feedback to learners connected to a Bb account. This means instructors can utilize comments and feedback across all of their courses. 

Documents

KB Article: Ultra Documents

Not available in Classic

Documents allow instructors to build complex pages with text, images, videos, and files. Documents are optimized for mobile devices, so you and your students can access them directly from a smartphone browser, and students can view them in-line without downloading files. 

Coming in the August 2024 release (2-column layout and more). 

Keep grades private until instructors are ready to post

KB Article:  Grading Tips in Blackboard Ultra

Not available in Classic

Instructors can control precisely when students can see the grades they have entered. Once you enter a grade, it is private until it’s posted. Instructors can post individual grades or wait and post all grades for a particular assessment at once.

Course Announcements appear as pop-ups in the course and generate statistics on what has been read.

KB Article: Announcements

Not available in Classic

Faculty can now track "who" is reading Announcements.  

Set accommodations once for students to apply to all assessments

KB Article: Setting accommodations

Not available in Classic

Faculty can set accommodations for a student once via the Roster, and then they will apply to all assessments in their course. Accommodations can affect due dates by never marking a student's submission as late or the time limit by providing extra or unlimited time for assessments with a timer. 

Progress Tracking

KB Article:  Progress tracking

Not available in Classic

Students like seeing what content they've reviewed and what's coming up. Students can mark complete items like Documents, uploaded files, or links once they have opened them. For any other items like Assessments, Tests, Journals, or Discussions, the item will automatically be marked as complete when the student has submitted it. When all items in a Folder or Module have been completed, the entire folder is automatically marked as complete. The Ultra course interface will not allow students to check off any item that has not been opened or completed.

Due Dates

KB Article:  Due Dates

Not available in Classic

Students appreciate seeing due dates, so assignments appear in their Blackboard calendar and activity stream. They can jump into those assignments and receive gradebook feedback directly from those areas.

Easier Navigation

Watch a Video of student feedback

Things students say they like about Ultra: User-friendly navigation, viewing content without downloading, and mobile-friendly modern design.

Blackboard Analytics

KB Article:  Blackboard Analytics

Not available in Classic

Course at-a-Glance: Interactions, submissions, and time in the course compared to similar courses in your department.

Activity and Grade Scatter Plot: A scatter plot of your course activity and your grades in the course.

Activity Matrix: This report compares each student's number of submissions to the average across all students in that course. The report includes a graph of submission trends over the entire term, the number of submissions, the average number of submissions in the course, days since the student's last submission, and the last submission type.

Course Submission Summary Report: Submission information for each student including assignments, tests, surveys, and graded discussions and journals.

Panopto Video Assignments

KB Article:  Creating a Panopto Video Assignment

Easier than Classic

Creating a video assignment is easier for both faculty and students. Faculty simply need to create an assignment, and students can access the Panopto recroder from the submission area of the assignment. The submissions and feedback can both be easily accessed from the gradebook.

Embedding Panopto Videos

KB Article:  How to Embed Panopto Videos in Bb Ultra

Easier than Classic

In Bb Classic, a course needed to be 'Provisioned' for use with Panopto before faculty could add videos. There is also no need to 'Provision' your course for Panopto beforehand because it is done automatically when the course is generated. Finding and embedding Panopto videos into a Blackboard Ultra course is fewer clicks for faculty.

Inline Viewing for File Attachments in Blackboard Ultra

KB Article:  Adding Content to Bb Ultra

Not available in Classic

Microsoft Office and PDF files that are added to Ultra Documents, Assignments, or Tests can be viewed inline, directly within the browser. When a file is uploaded, a user can choose whether to view it inline, download it, or do both.

Copy individual assignments between courses with included gradebook columns.

KB Article:  How to Create an Assignment

KB Article:  How to Copy Content between Ultra Courses

Not available in Classic.

You can copy a single assignment between courses and the associated Gradebook column will also copy with it.

Creating Schedules for Virtual Office Hours in Zoom via Bb

KB Article:  Zoom Scheduler

Not available in Classic and only available using the LTI integration in Blackboard Ultra

Schedule specific days and times for meetings with students. Students can schedule meetings to meet with you during your scheduled time for defined increments (15 minutes, 30, etc.). Email reminders are sent to both instructors and students. One set of scheduled times can be applied to all your courses.  Watch this video to learn how to use the Zoom scheduler.  This tool became available on May 6, 2024. 

Print Assessments

KB Article:  Printing Tests/Assessments from Bb Ultra

Not available in Classic.  Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:

• Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access
• Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated centers
• Backup and record-keeping
• Conducting offline assessment
• Documentation and compliance
• Maintaining security and integrity

The print option in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions is available. Printing also allows you to save as a PDF.

Create a Rubric With Blackboard's Rubric Design Assistant

KB Article:  Bb Rubric Design Assistant

Not available in Classic. Blackboard’s Rubric Design Assistant can quickly and efficiently create a rubric based on an assignment’s description, saving an instructor significant time and effort in the design process. In addition to the linked instructions, you can watch a video about using the Rubric Design Assistant and are welcome to contact your eLearning Liaisons with questions. 

NOTE: If your assignment already contains a description with grading criteria, the Rubric Design Assistant will use that information to create the rubric. The generator works best using clearly defined parameters, expectations, and grading guidelines. If the assignment is vague, the rubric will also be vague. After it generates the rubric, it is highly recommended that you manually edit it to fine-tune its criteria and descriptors to align more precisely with your course content, student level, and assessment goals.